Erich Fromm and the intersubjective tradition

Abstract

Erich Fromm was not only one of the founders of IFPS in the 1960s, but also one of the forerunners of the intersubjective tradition in psychoanalysis. Trained at the Berlin Institute, he started in the 1930s, after emigrating to the USA, to reformulate psychoanalytic theory by focusing on man's need to be related to reality, to others, and to him- or herself. Similarly to Sullivan, Fromm looked at man primarily as a social being. But in contrast to Sullivan, Fromm stressed much more man's being molded by societal requirements and by an intersubjectivity that is determined by strivings originating in the structure of his social character. Because of Fromm's “societal” orientation, his approach to psychoanalysis is still of relevance to understanding how the intersubjective and intrapsychic are interwoven in each individual. Beyond that, his approach enables insights into what is going on psychically in society and how these changes can influence the individual's welfare or suffering.

Keywords:

• Erich Fromm
• intersubjectivity
• revision of psychoanalysis
• relational psychoanalysis
• social character
• social psychoanalytic approach

Notes

¹This paper was presented at the Symposium on “Intersubjective Traditions in the History of IFPS” that took place on the occasion of the 16th International IFPS Forum of Psychoanalysis entitled “The Intrapsychic and the Intersubjective in Contemporary Psychoanalysis,” Athens, October 20–23, 2010. The original German language version of this paper was published in Forum der Psychoanalyse, 27(2),151–163.